SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has awarded its Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the Taurinus X200 laptop sold by Libiquity.
This is the first product of Libiquity to achieve RYF certification. The Taurinus X200 has the same architecture and certified software as the Libreboot X200, which was certified in January 2015. The Taurinus X200 can be purchased from Libiquity at https://shop.libiquity.com/product/taurinus-x200.
The Taurinus X200 is a refurbished and updated laptop based on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200, with all of the original low-level firmware and operating system software replaced. It runs the FSF-endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system and the free software boot system, Libreboot. Perhaps most importantly, all of Intel's Management Engine (ME) firmware and software has been removed from this laptop.
The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. The Taurinus X200 comes with the fast and secure Libreboot firmware and the FSF-endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system. Importantly, Intel's Management Engine (ME) firmware with its applications like AMT (remote out-of-band management/backdoor system, part of "vPro") and PAVP (audio/video DRM) have been removed from this laptop.
The laptop ships within the USA and may be purchased from the Libiquity Store.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pehjota on Thursday October 01 2015, @04:05AM
A similar company in the UK called Minifree [minifree.org] has been running profitably for a couple of years now. From what I've seen, they offer great support and service after the sale. Technical support, warranty (and after warranty) service, etc. Both of these companies do support by e-mail or even IRC (for people who want something a little more real-time).
Most businesses fail, for one reason or another. Not always just because you think there isn't a market for their products. (And in this case, there seems to be a market for computers that can be trusted by their owners to not expose their data to attackers through a firmware backdoor, send all their desktop search queries to Bing/Superfish/Amazon, etc.)